The Corbomite Maneuver

Four of my favorite Star Trek episodes are set entirely in space, Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Doomsday Machine and The Immunity Syndrome.

Of those three, Balance of Terror probably has the least amount of exterior shots. Since it was based on a submarine warfare story, it lends itself well to interior, claustrophobic narrative. To the best of my knowledge, so far, this was the only one of the four that has been re-done with the new digital FX. The new effects on Balance of Terror were clean and understated. The most significant differences were that the Romulan ship actually maneuvered and the comet was considerably better looking than the original.

The Corbomite Maneuver has the next fewest FX shots, and I just saw the newly re-done version. I’m very impressed. The artists didn’t quite keep the exact same shots when they recreated the originals, and this may not set well with purists. On the other hand, I’m a purist, and I liked them.

The First Federation vessels looked just like the originals; however the Fasarius has considerably more detail and it looks great.

The exterior shots that were changed maintained the spirit of the originals, but took the shots to new camera angles, making each scene look fresh rather than repeating the same shot over and over. In one nice shot where the space bouy hangs in front of the Enterprise the colors of the glowing cube are appropriately reflecting off the hull of the ship. Nice.

I can hardly wait for The Doomsday Machine and can only imagine how they’ll realize the giant space amoeba in The Immunity Syndrome.